


R is for Revenge

by Psychodelikas



Series: The Alphabet of Dreams [19]
Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: And Vala thought SHE was insecure..., F/M, Good times are-a comin'!, Shit got way too serious!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 17:44:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13595133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Psychodelikas/pseuds/Psychodelikas
Summary: The son of a bitch smirked, his mismatched eyes sparkling mischievously. “I’m going to have myself a little bit of revenge, if you will.”





	R is for Revenge

The days merged into each other one agonizing hour at a time. It was pure torture to not know if Jared was still in the labyrinth or not, not to mention if he had made any progress on his self-discovery journey. Sarah tried to reassure me as often as she could that it was a good sign it was taking so long. It meant Jared was actually trying to improve himself. I knew she was right but I really couldn’t help worrying. I also kept wishing from the bottom of my heart he would just waltz through the door at any second and lie me down on the floor!

_Mental note: never tell anyone that I’ve said out loud I wish the goblins would bring Jared to my bedroom right now. Especially Zane!_

All too soon the day of registration was upon me. Naturally, I had forced Zanthe to accompany me and the two of us had to wait about ten minutes in line before I could actually leave all of the necessary documents with the administration unit. After I registered, I informed her how it was for me to balance the administration of a castle and studying for the most important examination of my life. Naturally, she told me that I was insane for trying to do both instead of focusing on the one. On her part, she told me that her own session was reaching the end and she couldn’t wait for it all to be over. She was almost sure she would fail two out of six exams but that was more than acceptable for her.

Then the twenty-first of June rudely barged into my life and I was already going through the extremely complicated speech I would give my parents when the results would come in. I was almost positive I would fail though not for lack of studying. Lord knew I had been up to my elbows in books three days prior to the exam. The only problem was that it was only during my actual studying that I was capable of understanding the words before my eyes. As soon as I went to the bathroom, everything I had read vanished from my mind.

I woke up that day feeling unusually calm. I faced a very real possibility of complete failure and I was okay with that. I argued to myself that I was in some sort of trance or shock. I had been half right. When I saw myself parking in the school parking lot, I felt like I would go to classes, not finish my master’s degree.

“Vala! Hi!” Lily called to me as soon as she saw me, a ton of papers in her hands.

“Hey, Lily,” I greeted her back. I nudged my hand in the papers’ direction. “Last minute revisions?”

“Oh, don’t start with me!” the stressed woman replied, her eyes wide. “It’s like, nothing will stick with me. I read the sentence, I understand, I look up, bam! All gone. But! I have a plan.”

“Oh, no…”

“Shut up, it’s fool proof.”

“Like the last fool proof method which almost cost you the semester?”

“How the hell was I supposed to know the son of a bitch knew where to find my notes app?!”

I laughed at the outraged tone she had used.

“Oh, my God! I am a total bitch,” she suddenly exclaimed then looked at me concerned. “How are you feeling? You good?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said then shrugged. “Actually, I feel better than fine.”

Lily blinked once. “Are you in some sort of shock?”

“Probably.”

“Okay, cool. That’s understandable, seen as how the asshats in charge decided to merge the exam with the presentation in the same flippin’ day.”

“Actually, that’s a good thing. Means everything will be over fast.”

“But it also means we’ll be stuck here the entire day.”

“True…”

We continued to chat and examine the various pros and cons about our very important day until the fatal hour arrived. We were seated alphabetically, of course then we were each called to the teacher’s desk. I took a deep breath before I chose one of the exam sheets then returned to my seat. I had no idea if it was a good sign or not, but I felt like those were the easiest questions known to mankind. Smiling, I began writing the answers.

When I was done, I wanted to get up and leave my paper. I was more than a little surprise to notice that I was the first person in the hall to finish. I felt awkward so I opted for looking over my answers for any mistakes. By the time I was finished, two people had left the room. Feeling better, I too got up, presented my answers then left.

Lily finished at the end of the allotted time which gave us two hours to relax until the presentations started. “So what do you want to do?” I asked as we headed to the bathroom.

“Urgh, die!” Lily exclaimed dramatically. “Seriously, of all the possible questions, _I_ just had to pick the most complicated ones.”

“Sorry,” I chuckled sympathetic. “At least it’s over now.”

“Oh, yeah, and a new set of torture can begin.”

“Oh, come on, spoiled brat. The presentation is a heck of a lot easier than this was.”

“Being reasonable would go against every spoiled bone in my body so I’ll pass.”

I laughed a little too loud at that because she had reminded me perfectly of Zane. “I’ll wait outside,” I told her as Lily opened the bathroom door. She nodded her head once then went inside.

I took a deep breath and headed for the tall windows. I put my bag on the windowsill then climbed up on it myself. I reached into my purse for my own papers when I felt an all too familiar breeze touch the back of my neck.

“Ouch!” I hissed softly. I had turned around so fast, I sprained a neck muscle. To my supreme disappointment, there was nothing there. I frowned confused.

_There’s no-one here. The place is completely empty!_

I couldn’t help but grin widely. Right on cue, another breeze made me turn right. I got off the windowsill and let the wind guide me through the building.

Soon I found myself leaving the building and heading for the adjacent park. As I walked on, I noticed the lack of benches or sculptures, or any sign of any familiar objects. If I hadn’t known any better, I could have sworn that I was walking down a forest path.

That simple thought made me remember that I couldn’t afford to go on treasure hunts. I stopped and sighed deeply. Reluctantly, I turned around and headed back for the faculty. I took only one step then realized that there was no path back. There were only trees as far as the eye could see.

“Oh, no,” I said in a low, scared voice.

I jogged rather than walked a little more, just to be sure but there was no room for doubt. I no longer was in the same country I had been less than a minute previous!

“Oh, crap!” I cursed as I put my hands on my head. “Oh, God! Of all the possible days…”

The wind softly pushed me back on the course I had been. I growled annoyed and did as silently bid. If anything, I would give that arrogant son of a bitch a healthy piece of my mind! All of those warm and fuzzy feelings intensified tenfold when I got out of the woods and into the by now familiar clearing.

“Of course,” I mumbled to myself as I regarded that infernal castle. Then I frowned confused as I understood something. “Wait a minute…”

“Hello, my dear.”

I took a deep breath as I turned towards the voice’s source.

Freakin’ Jared Korrick was smiling at me, hands in his pockets. I noticed with some surprise that he was still dressed in the very modern suit he had been when I had banished him. The sun’s warm light made his eyes shine like it was nobody’s business, making him even more the fairy prince I had always suspected him of being. “You’re looking lovely, as usual,” he added.

“And you look perfect for killing, Jared,” I told him sweetly as I got closer to him. I stopped at arm’s length from him. “The last day of my master’s degree? Really? You couldn’t have waited one more friggin’ day to do this?”

“I’m afraid not, my dear,” he answered casually, still smiling. “What I have to say is, I’m afraid far more important than your little ritual of graduation.”

“Little ri – are you freakin’ kidding me, Jared?” I snapped. “This is the most important day of my entire life and you feel like making jokes about it?”

“More important than what I have to say about our future together?”

_Well, shieet…_

I stared at his impossibly smiling and calm face like a complete and utter moron. But I saw something for the first time in him. He was dead serious. He might have chosen a plain mask but his ruby and gold stare spoke volumes about his intentions.

I closed my mouth and pressed my lips into a line. “…I’m listening,” I said with half a mouth.

Jared’s smile widened. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, as per your instructions and I’ve come to a rather stunning conclusion.” He took one step closer to me. “I’ve developed quite the strong feelings for you, I’ve told you as much. What I haven’t been able to tell you is that this… also frightens me.”

My eyes widened at those words. “What could you be possibly scared of?”

Jared took a deep breath. “Rejection.”

I laughed in his face. I couldn’t help it. Of all the possible things he could have said to me, that simple word was not on the list.

“I’m very delighted to see that my plight amuses you.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” I chuckled, still trying to stop. “Oh, God! I’m so sorry, Jared but, oh!” I laughed a little more then took a moment to calm down. “I apologize, I really do. It’s just that, I’m surprised, that’s all. I mean, Jared, come on! How could I possibly reject you?”

“You did once,” he remarked.

“I was a kid!” I fought back. “And as I’ve learned the hard way, I never should have been there in the first place.”

“Or maybe that was precisely where you should have been,” he countered. “What I’m about to say next is not something I ever dreamed of telling you but I must. You had already caught my eye since you were but a child, yes, but I had the immense privilege of watching you slowly grow into quite the fetching young woman. I’m not ashamed to admit that I had started having improper feelings towards you a little while before your discovering of the castle’s secret. I was determined to make you mine, it wasn’t like I hadn’t done that before with countless others. Then you returned to the dinner table pale as a sheet. I immediately knew what you had seen and just like that, all of my sexual desires for you vanished. I can’t explain why or how but it’s the truth. The moment I saw you so shaken up, worry filled my every cell. I couldn’t possibly do any of the things I had wanted. So I did something I had never done before. I let you go.”

I also did something I never thought I would. My hand flew over his cheek with a force and speed I had only dreamed of possessing. The sound of my palm hitting his face was exquisite while the fact that I had almost physically imbalanced him was a balm for my soul.

“How very generous and thoughtful of you,” I mocked, anger rushing in my veins.

Jared took a few seconds to compose himself _and went on._ “From that day on, you naturally avoided even thinking about my establishment. I resisted every urge I had to seek you out and try to explain what it was you had seen. In addition to the castle not thinking you were ready after its little test, _I_ also felt you could not handle the truth. Yet. So I resumed myself to watching you, observing the woman you were turning into.” He paused for a moment. “I saw that you had moved on. Somehow, you had managed to put behind you that night and slowly start building a life for yourself. It had hurt me to admit that but if I truly wanted you to be happy, I couldn’t possibly pull you back. Before you turned up on my doorstep, it had been years since I had checked on your progress but…” He took half a step forward. “When I first saw you there, in the hallway, it was as if time had made that wonderful girl reach maturity in the blink of an eye.”

He chocked, wanting to say too many things at once. I realized I had stopped breathing at one point and exhaled loudly. For a moment, we didn’t say anything or even move. All we did was look at each other in silence, both trying to decipher what the other was thinking.

Finally, Jared sighed. “I could go on but I think you’ve got the jest of it,” he said with his usual, charming smile. “But you gave me a job to do and I like to think I’ve taken your request to the letter.” He straightened his back. “Valaria Straits, I, Jared Korrick, hereby officially inform you that I have indeed re-examined myself. I have truly seen the error of my ways and have come up with an adequate means of rehabilitation.”

My jaw dropped all the way to the Earth’s core. “Which is?” I heard myself ask though damned if I knew how the hell I had managed to brain, much less words.

He took a deep breath. He set his sights to the ground as he approached me then circled me. I followed his movement until he stopped. Jared looked up and right into my eyes.

The son of a bitch smirked, his mismatched eyes sparkling mischievously. “I’m going to have myself a little bit of revenge, if you will.” He slowly began to walk again, making me do the same but backwards. “I intend to open your eyes to the new man I have become by overwhelming your senses until the only thing you can possibly have on your mind and body…” My back came into contact with a tree and I gasped softly. Jared brought his face closer to mine, a hand next to my head. “Is me,” he whispered on my lips, making my skin break out in goose bumps.

He looked intensely into my eyes, searching for my very soul. I felt myself shaking under his stare. He smirked and rubbed his nose against mine then flew away from me. I gasped and reached out my hand -

“…but anyways, I’m sure the teachers who will be there won’t be complete pains in the ass,” Lily was saying.

I blinked once. I was holding the revision sheets in my hands, still perched up on the windowsill. I swallowed hard and forced myself to smile as I looked at my long-time classmate. “I’m sure you’re right.”

Lily smiled widely at me.

_When I get my hands on that good for nothing, ovary-killing bastard, I am going to make him wish he’d just asked my parents to leave me at home that night!_

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you so much for reading! ^}^


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